by Donna Hicks

Created on: April 27, 2010   Last Updated: March 20, 2012

There are several jobs that could qualify as worst summer jobs. The most horrible jobs for summer involve the ones that many young people do not realize are scams. Parents may not even know their teenager has been working at a scam job until too late. If the parent finds out, at least the parent can help the child from being ripped off further. These jobs may be found on-line or in the local newspaper, and prey on unsuspecting teens. A job is advertised as “no experience needed” and may offer an outrageous starting income. The teen sees dollar signs and has no clue that she or he will never get paid. The Better Business Bureau has tons of complaints from places like this.

Some jobs cannot be forced to pay the teen because the teen does not know about computer scams and may have been scammed by people in another country. Many adults do not even realize that they cannot be force to pay up because the United States does not have jurisdiction in that country, and so have been scammed themselves.

Another worst summer job is the type where the employee is forced to stand outside the local pizza joint or car dealership, basically dressed in a very heavy, very hot Halloween costume of some animal, in searing heat, holding a sign, advertising the daily special. Those costumes can cause heat exhaustion and typically, the employee stands there for hours before getting a break.

The newspaper classified ads continue to scam people looking for summer work by offers to make money that doesn't exist by "travelling across the country for free" to sell magazine subscriptions door-to-door. There have been horror stories of these companies leaving the “summer employee” stranded in some other city and stat with no money or even a way back home to their own city or state. The person then has to get home by calling on family or friends to help. The person never gets paid.

Another worst summer job involves doing janitorial work at public rest stops. If you ever wonder how other people live, visit a restroom at a rest stop along a major freeway before the janitor cleans it. It is not a pretty looking or pretty smelling site.

There are legitimate summer jobs that a person can apply for without having to be scammed, forced to work under conditions that their supervisor or regular employees would never be expected to work in, and without having to smell like an outhouse. For a younger person, summer job opportunities may be available at the high school or college the student attends. For adults, temporary agencies, newspaper classifieds, legitimate intenet job sites and talking to family and friends may land the perfect summer job for the job seeker.

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